If you work full time, when do you get things done? What's your routine? Input from neurodivergent people would be especially helpful.

[UnimaginableWindBird]

I currently work 28 hours a week, but have been offered full-time hours and would like to go for it, but am trying to work out how to organize my life. I would be out of the house from 8am-5pm and my kids are in secondary school so are fairly independent.

If you work similar hours when do you cook, clean, socialize, exercise, talk to family members, do diy, have time alone to think etc?

In case it's relevant, I am neurodivergent and currently tend to spend around one day every fortnight just hiding under a duvet to recover from general life stuff, but also I genuinely enjoy my work and like my colleagues and it's a very ND friendly team.

I’m ND and meal planning has been revolutionary! Not so much from a food perspective but actually who is cooking and when, taking into account working from home/outside home and DC clubs. There was a moment of realisation that the reason we were resorting to convenience foods or takeaway when we had all the ingredients in was that we hadn’t factored in anytime for cooking. If I’m home from work 2 hours after DC dinner time but DH is working all day at home and then taking them to clubs after school, dinner isn’t going to cook itself! It sounds obvious but basing meals on our whereabouts that week has made life so much easier! We always try to have leftovers. So before… cook Sunday, leftovers Monday, work/club Tuesday…eek!
Now… cook Sunday, cook Monday (my day off), Sun leftovers on Tue, Mon leftovers on Wed, repeat for rest of week.
I don’t get on with batch cooking but this works for us, we get variety in meals and also means we do an online weekly shop, spend less and waste less as well.

I just do stuff all the time and make full use of what little time is available. I'm really into multi-tasking.

I.e. I'll make phone calls on handsfree whilst in the car for anything that doesn't require full attention/diary checking, etc., i.e. phoning friends/relatives, etc., just to keep in touch and it means I don't have to phone in quality time when I could be doing something else.

When I'm cooking, I'll do some cleaning/tidying whilst waiting for the food to cook etc, along with any simple/quick life admin.

Nothing gets left to be done "later", so I clean and tidy as I go, pick up bits from the floor, put stuff away as I leave a room, etc. I'll have a quick hoover around a random room every time I've a few spare minutes - I never save things up so I don't end up having to spend a whole day vacuuming/tidying the whole house.

Even when watching TV, I'll probably have my Ipad doing something like price comparisons for utility renewal, or paying a bill, etc.